R3 vs Sydney | Sun 23 Oct | 7:00pm | ROF

Get to the bencher early to watch TeeDub v ACFC on the telly.

Nah

On form 5-0 to Sydney. Vukovic to score from a free kick when 4-0 as Sydney start having some fun..

Fans blame the ref, coach blames house prices in Tauranga and then it's off to Melbourne where Victory fans look forward to improving their goal difference.

But then in football anything can happen. Sydney could get two players sent off and enable us to hold on for a "gutsy" draw.

Maybe we can counteract our poor metrics by being the team that boosts every other teams confidence and metrics.

The Nix, a big picture team, sacrificing themselves for the good of the league. ;)

Pretty rough start for us. City, Perth and Sydney who I think will all be top 4. Victory if they sort their shark too.

Can't see us winning, but it's the A-League so who the hell knows. Knowing Ernie he will stick with the same team with maybe one or two changes - perhaps Doyle to start and maybe Fenton too?

Nix to win 2 - 1

Would think Doyle in for Parkhouse but we also need another DM since we are getting over run in the midfield, so either WeeMac or Roly out for Rufer imo.

I hope we  win. 

If that was the choice, I would keep Wee Mac. I think he's in great form at the moment

Potentially A Rod in for Finkler. Ball movement is improved with A Rod - possibly Rufer in for Lia.

Sydney has their FFA Cup game vs Canberra Olympic midweek, guessing they won't need all their big guns for that game tho.

Only a rough start if the team is half arsed. City, Perth, Sydney and Victory could all say the same thing looking at us, if we had any football substance. But being Aussie teams they wouldn't be so meek. 

Even if we had substance they wouldn't say rough start, but rather, oh good a challenge boys, lets get into it. You know this.

The difference between aussie and kiwi mindset in football is quite stark and some of the problem.

Hoping no injuries. I'm looking forward to watching a good football side play on Sunday

Troll, as seen by your latest posts.

B off

Hopefully the Nix score their first goal for the season.

The nix scored against City in round 1....

No troll or someone who wears nix colored glasses. A supporter but not an irrational fanatic.

You'll get more honesty from a supporter than a fan any day. 

Maybe you don't want honesty and prefer just reading Nix circle J posts that don't threaten  your fantasy land.

If so just skip mine.

Thanks for the private message. Worth sharing

"No troll just telling it like it is. Like I said in reply if you don't want the truth from a supporter, and rather fantasy land posts from fanatics, just skip my posts. Easy. I can dumb down the posts for you if you like, maybe then you'd see that I actually give a fudge. Imagine a line, one end is real success ( by that I don't mean finishing also ran 6th) and the other is history. The nix are far closer to history than most would even see. By calling me a troll you are saying I think that would be OK? Fudge you. Oh and just one other thing, please don't say something to me here that you wouldn't say to my face. I wouldn't. If you think you still would, do it but wear nappies :)"

Are you an "auskiwi" as in a Kiwi living in Aus? Because I've found that sometimes those people can be overly critical about anything NZ, mostly not justified at all.

I think you're being overly harsh. The team needs to perform, and if we want to be top 4 probably needs to make a statement and win. But the performances thus far haven't been as bad as the level of angst indicates.

I think most of us are of the belief that Sydney City having scored 8 goals in 2 games are going to thrash the crap out of us. But it just would not surprise me if out of nowhere our buys play the games of their lives and cause an upset. Well it did in my dream last night. Realist V Hopefulness. Just so long as Brosque doesn't score.

I may of course be wrong, but my subjective impression is that if Nix loses a game then they really are terrible and will get the wooden spoon. The moment they win one game, by hook or by crook, and they immediately are world beaters and likely candidates to lift the trophy.

In other words, we're pretty much normal bunch of supporters. The season is only two games old and there will be some good games and some bad games. On present form I think are in with a chance to beat Brisbane and possibly Adelaide if stars align.

People saying "it's only 2 losses" seem to have forgotten last season. I doubt the angst would be as bad after 2 first up losses if we were coming off the back of a successful season. But as it is the start of this season just seems like a continuation of the same problems from last season. Last season we had the license/licence issue as an excuse. There is no excuse this season

Sure, international fixtures and travel - easy excuses for the first 2 games. International windows will affect 2 more rounds directly and possibly another 2 indirectly (depending on travel and proximity to the next HAL round). Could be almost a quarter of HAL games affected by international windows. 

Though, in saying that I don't think our performance in either of the 2 games would have improved by much even with our AW contingent fresh and available due to structural problems exposed by Perth, repeating problems since the end of 14/15 season, and City's setup and quality.

Next season #noexcuses :P

Madness

And also the alarming drop off at the end of the season before that

Not at all. We will have to be prepared to play the game without the ball for large periods of the game and Finkler will be a liability in that regard. Would rather have WeeMac and Roly rotating into the '10' position with A Rod deeper, as I said our ball movement has been better with A Rod. Our pressing would be better, I don't know why we press with Finkler in the team we are just opening up the game for the opposition - take a leaf out of Perth's book and just drop attacking players a bit deeper and more compact overall if Fink is in the team.

Oh and just one other thing, please don't say something to me in a PM that you wouldn't say in a forum thread. I wouldn't.

But if we would say it in a forum thread we can PM it to you?

I'll say it. You're a Computer Geek !!!! ???

Think he's the bloke who owns 4 businesses. Probably just stressed out at the moment.

Haha. Classic. 

I think we are going to get a good old Smurfing this weekend!

Rufer for Roly might help the defence and the balance.

Roly for Lia?

That's where I'm at too. Isn't that his preferred position. If we set up like last Sun it'll be same old. Phoenix come out firing. Roly gets hacked to death, always receiving the ball with back to goal - Kosta and Gui the same - all over rover.

Any word on Moss' leg?

It's not Moss' leg, it's Wellington's leg!